Integrate CLM with HP QC through Rational OSLC Adaptor for HP ALM

July 10, 2014

What is Rational OSLC Adaptor is all about?

The Rational OSLC adapter for HP ALM is basically a web based application that allows you to link HP ALM and Rational Requirements Composer and Rational Team Concert resources. It is specially designed for teams using HP Quality Center for testing who are also working with one or both of the following:

Rational Requirements Composer for Business Analysts

Rational Team Concert for Development teams

The OSLC adapter works in collaboration with HP Quality Center allowing you to quickly switch between applications. Testers can open the resources of Quality Center in the OSLC adapter. Also, the Launch in HP-ALM button allows the resource shown in the OSLC Adapter to be opened in HP Quality Center in just one go. There is absolutely no synchronization step and the data shown in the OSLC Adapter is always updated.

Rational OSLC adapter for HP ALM allows you to establish and follow links between resources. You can reconcile RRC requirement collections with HP ALM test folders to check the test coverage of your requirements, and link failed test runs to work items in Rational Team Concert, or link change sets in Rational Team Concert to defects tracked in HP ALM.

Dashboard widgets can also be configured to view data from HP ALM and CLM in one place, open a preview of those resources in the dashboard, or follow the link to open the resource in HP ALM.

Supported Functionality

Where the need for Integration Adaptors come from?

Software development is a complex process that involves many practitioners and stakeholders in varying roles. Each practitioner is required to use their own tools to complete their work. The need for collaboration across these tools, and traceability across software lifecycle artifacts, is accepted across the globe. The IBM® Rational® solution for Collaborative Lifecycle Management (CLM) is designed for this purpose. However, while an organization may see the value that the CLM solution brings, they may already be heavily invested in other third-party application lifecycle management products. Often organizations want to use one or more of the CLM applications, and also continue to leverage their third-party tools. The IBM® Rational® Lifecycle Integration Adapters helps these organizations to communicate, collaborate, and establish lifecycle traceability across the boundaries of their heterogeneous tools.

As the test lead, you need to first create and link an HP test plan directly from the requirements collection, using a Validated By link type.

Cross check if any requirement(s) left for association

After the requirements collection and test plan associated, you can now reconcile the two containers to determine which requirements in the collection don’t have associated test cases in the plan.

View Requirements

Notice the three toolbar buttons added to the test case window, mentioned in red rectangles. Sample workflow code provided with the adapter supports these buttons. The buttons launch the associated change management application dashboard, requirements management application dashboard, and adapter view of the current HP artifact. Conversely, the Launch HP ALM link in the adapter view of the test case opens the test case in HP Quality Center, as shown below:

Create a Traceability View for Requirements Collection

The analysts can use various capabilities in the requirements management application to verify that all requirements have coverage. For example, they can create a traceability view for the collection to show the Validated By links for all artifacts. Analysts can also choose to generate a document-style report for the collection to review the test coverage.

Use linked HP requirements for end-to-end traceability

As testing is completed, with the stub requirements in HP, you view the testing status of each requirement and any defects indirectly linked to the requirement as a result of the testing. You can create HP Favorites so analysts and other stakeholders can view which requirements have test cases that are, for example, Failed, Blocked, or Not Covered in their CLM dashboard.

Add HP gadget to your CLM dashboard

Integrate Rational change management apps with HP Quality Center

Link the Development Plan with new or existing test plan in HP QC

As test lead, you navigate to the change management development plan and link the plan to a new or existing test plan in HP, using the Tested by Test Plan link.

Manage defects and fixes with the HP adapter

Development Lead Role

As the development lead, you can use an Unassigned Defects gadget in your CLM dashboard to discover the new, unassigned defects.

You can instead open a new change management task for the developer to use for the fix. You can use the adapter to create the task directly from the HP defect, prefilled with the contents of the defect. The two artifacts are linked for traceability.

Developer Role

As the developer, you check your My Defects gadget provided by the adapter in your CLM dashboard and see an HP defect assigned to you. You open the defect in the adapter to review the details of the issue. You fix the problem in your Rational Team Concert Eclipse client, check in your changes, associate them with the HP defect, and deliver the fix. When you refresh the defect in the adapter, you can see your associated change sets.

Lastly, your test team can open defects directly in the change management application. The tester can open the failed test run in the adapter and create a defect prefilled with the failed test run information. The change management defect and HP test run are linked for traceability. The tester can also create a defect prefilled from a test instance.

What we learned?

The Rational Adapter for HP ALM supports a variety of linkages between CLM applications and the HP Quality Center. Additional capabilities help the test team to generate HP test cases from requirements and easily keep the test plan current with the relevant requirements collection. You can configure dashboard gadgets provided by the adapter to view data from HP and CLM in one place. In summary, the HP adapter links your data, and you choose the process that best allows you to develop software across your heterogeneous set of tools.